


Dark Places

by FactoryKat



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Claustrophobia, Light Angst, M/M, POV Anders (Dragon Age), Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 21:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19709794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FactoryKat/pseuds/FactoryKat
Summary: Darkness, the smell of stale whiskey and rot - it's not easy to forget what it was like down there. Some nights, Anders' mind takes him back, but at least this time he has someone to illuminate those shadowy spaces.





	Dark Places

**Author's Note:**

> Another prompt-based piece for the Saturday writing thread on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/c9tre2/spoilers_alloctime_to_be_storytellers_the_dragon/

Darkness.

Damp nothingness penetrated the regrettably thin layer of his tunic and curling his arms tighter around himself granted no relief, only fleeting comfort.

Anders strained his ears to listen. For anything. A breath, the shuffle of feet, a distant cough.

"Hello?" His voice called out with trepidation and a sliver of hope.

Nothing. Nothing answered but suffocating silence. Not even his own echoed words could reach Anders in the hollow void that engulfed him. Hands splayed and pushed against the cold stone to find it stationary, unmoving, yet closing in all the same. Harried and tense breaths carried to his senses the nauseating stench of whiskey, stale, and long gone off. The stagnant air choked him with the overpowering smell of rot - of being forgotten. His lungs constricted, leaving him dizzy and gasping, fighting the urge to retch and empty his stomach of what minuscule contents it held. A rapidly beating heart threatened its prison of flesh and bone as it thudded violently against his ribcage.

It was an oppressive blackness. It held him helplessly captive as it pressed against him like a thick, musty blanket that clung to every inch of his skin - skin that was cold and clammy, dampened by sweat in his fright. Anders found little solace in folding into himself with his head enveloped by his hands, desperately clawing at the increasing hysteria.

"Shhh."

A tender voice cooed, mercifully intruding upon the bleak expanse and kissing his thoughts like a mother's gentle whisper.

"Shh. _~~It is alright now, mage~~._ It's okay. _~~You are safe~~. _You're okay." 

The voice - voices - with their words held the gnashing jaws of despair at bay, and the dark curtain stretching out before him finally parted. Light filtered through the dense gloom and brushed against his cheek as he raised his head and then his body to greet it.

"I'm here. I've got you." 

Soothing sounds continued to beckon him towards the unknown, new darkness - soft and hopeful and only a silhouette against a flickering orange glow that bloomed the closer he got. Colour washed away the shades of charcoal and stretched out to take hold of him. Arms. They were arms, pulling him and closing around him until he could feel the warmth and solidity beneath his own body. 

When spice and sweat filled his nose, the haze lifted, and he opened his eyes. Beneath an unruly mop of hair were eyes bluer than the Waking Sea brimming with concern.

"... Hawke?" The name was little more than a croak uttered in his waking state.

"Hey,” Hawke whispered, and in the dim light Anders could vaguely make out the distraught frown on his lover’s face as it eased into a hesitant smile. “You okay? You were shouting and shaking in your sleep. Bad dreams?"

_It's fine_ , Anders thought. Despite the building pressure and dull throbbing in his head, he was fine. Everything was alright now, at least until the day it no longer was. That day would come, not today, not tomorrow, but it would. 

"Sorry. Yes, I didn't mean to wake you..."

"Anders, it’s okay. You don't have to apologize." Hawke’s lips brushed his temple and against his brow as a calloused hand grazed across his cheek. Fingers knitted themselves in his hair and massaged his scalp in soothing strokes. 

He felt his heartbeat settle into a much calmer rhythm finally and Justice was little more than a faint hum in the back of his thoughts. "I know... I'm alright, love. Thank you."

“Good. Had me worried you know.”

Anders nodded solemnly, ignoring the more profound concern in his lover's face and let his eyes close again. He resisted succumbing to his exhaustion, if only out of distrust that his own mind would thrust him back into unrelenting darkness, or wherever it may take him this time. He didn't, however, protest being held, not with one hand cradling his head and the other drawing small circles into his back. Anders nestled in closer, burying his face in Hawke's chest, Hawke who was solid and warm and _real._

Losing sleep was a small sacrifice to make, if it meant not being stolen away from this to face his demons, even for a moment.


End file.
